Easy Italian Wedding Soup #SundaySupper

When it comes to meal time, do you sit at the table or stand and graze? For the longest time, I’ve been a grazer. Heck, when you’re single, what’s to stop you from foregoing a plate entirely and noshing straight out of the pan? So bad, I know. What’s worse, I eventually turned Morgan into a grazer, even though he preferred a sit down meal. And he’s not the only one to adopt my lazy ways. Then last year, I decided to turn that all around. No more eating at the trough. Being a newlywed, it was all part of the “nesting” thing.

You might be surprised to learn that Italian Wedding Soup has nothing to do with weddings at all and is, in fact, a mistranslation of sorts. Minestra maritata, literally “married soup,” refers to the combination of meats with greens. In Italian, to say two things go well together, they are said to be married, or maritata. This age-old Neapolitan staple was loaded with lots of meats and greens–much heartier fare than today’s standard Italian-American version. Isabel’s Easy Italian Wedding Soup is quite filling, though, as it’s chock full of mini pork meatballs, but the delicate blend of chicken broth, spinach and a little pasta help keep it light. It’s super easy to prepare, too, and as we work our way through another cold snap here on the Left Coast, I was glad to have a steaming bowl of this soup to keep me warm.

Shall we begin?

First, let’s soak that french bread in the milk. Once it’s all good and soggy, squeeze the milk out (yes, with your bare hands), and put it in a larger mixing bowl for the meatball mixture.

Add the remaining meatball ingredients to this bowl and mix well. You should start with a wooden spoon and finish off mixing with your hands for best results. What can I say? Meatballs are messy business!

Preheat the oven to 375F, and get your pan ready. Scoop (2 teaspoons) the meat mixture and shape into little balls, lining up on the pan about 2 inches apart.

Bake these bad boys for 10-12 minutes or until no longer pink inside. While the meatballs are baking, put the chicken broth in a large stock pot and bring to a boil.

Blend the spinach, eggs, Parmesan cheese and white pepper in a bowl. Then drop by the spoonful into the boiling broth, stirring well after each addition. Reduce the heat and let simmer for a couple of minutes.

Now add the meatballs and Orzo pasta to the soup and let simmer an additional 20 minutes or until the pasta is done.

Serve piping hot with a little Parmesan on top and a crusty loaf on the side. Enjoy!

These mini pork meatballs are bursting with flavor and the are the perfect addition to Italian wedding soup.

Author: Anne Papina

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 8

Ingredients

2 slices french bread

½ cup milk

1½ lb lean ground pork

2 eggs

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp ground pepper

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup bread crumbs

1½ tsp Italian seasoning

½ tsp kosher salt

Instructions

In a medium bowl, soak the bread in the milk until soggy all the way through. With your hands, squeeze the milk out of the bread and place in a large bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon (or better yet, use your hands).

Preheat oven to 375F.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with a non-stick cooking spray. Using a small cookie scoop (ie, two teaspoons full), shape the meat mixture into small balls, and line in rows on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until done.

We are celebrating this weekâ€™s birthday event by choosing recipes from contributors that have inspired us in the past year.Â With 52 weeks of inspiration, it was hard to pick just one. Let’s see what others are serving up.

What a fun event filled with such good food! I only wish I could actually taste each one. Oh wait! I can. I have the recipes. Time to get cookingâ€¦

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Anne, I love that you used one of Isabel’s recipes. Your wedding soup looks absolutely delicious, hearty, filling, yet also light and nutritious. I could totally go for a giant bowl of it right now! Happy Sunday!

Oh I was a terrible grazer when I was single, it is so easy to do. Getting married saved me as far as good eating habits was concerned. 🙂Laura | Small Wallet, Big Appetite recently posted..Drunken Meatballs #SundaySupper

Italian Wedding Soup is one of my all time favorites and you just reminded me its been a while since we have had it. After seeing your beautiful pics I know I have to remedy that soon!Pam @ The Meltaways recently posted..GlutenFree Chicken Brushetta for #SundaySupper

I am so honored your chose one of my recipes to celebrate this memorable event! Thank you for your amazing and inspiring recipes every week. I have so many of your beautiful recipes on my mus try list.Family Foodie recently posted..Portuguese Spicy Pulled Pork Sandwiches #SundaySupper

I LOVE Italian Wedding Soup!! This looks perfect for a day like today–rainy, grey and miserable. In fact, I’m tempted to run to the store to buy ingredients for this!kelly @ kellybakes recently posted..Nutella Shortbread Bars for #SundaySupper

It sure is freezing on the left coast. We actually had some snow flurries earlier this morning in Portland. This soup looks fantastic. Thank you so much for the explanation – I was wondering whether it was a typical soup for Italian weddings. I am glad to know better now 🙂Bea recently posted..#Dairyfree Pecan Pancakes – Fruit Salad & Snowshoeing Fun

I used ground turkey instead of the pork and that was really good. Lovely — I have always loved cooking meatballs in the oven instead of forking them around a frying pan! The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith) used to be on PBS and shared that trick. Been doing it ever since!! I have also added in a can of small navy beans, drained, to increase the fiber. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

So glad you enjoyed it! Baking them is SO much easier, isn’t it? I used to watch the Frugal Gourmet all the time–in fact, I have one of his cookbooks! I really should dig into it again–it’s been way too long!

Thanks for the enlightening and entertaining history /lowdown on one of my all time favorite foods. But in breaking with tradition and almost all variations on it: I usually use ground LAMB, lots of fresh Spinach and sometimes switch out the Orzo for Achini de Pepe OR lately, Mediterranean/Israeli/Pearl Couscous. And if I happen to have some Mushrooms (wild…) to saute ~ they go in too. I could eat this blissful concoction all day long!

Hi Melissa–so sorry for the delayed reply–I just found a bunch of blog comments trapped in my spam folder! I’ve never tried freezing this, so I couldn’t say for sure; however, I see no reason why this wouldn’t freeze well. I often freeze broths for later use, and that always works out well. I just freeze stuff like this in plastic containers such as Tupperware. Leave a little space at the top so it has room to expand. Hope this helps!